Sunday, August 15, 2010

Progressives Underestimate Palin's 2012 Prospects At Their Peril

.

.By MARC McDONALD

It's easy to laugh at Sarah Palin. Then again, it was easy to laugh at Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush: two lightweights who wound up occupying the White House for a total of 16 years. I believe progressives underestimate Palin at their peril.

As Keith Olbermann has pointed out a number of times, Palin is an idiot. The video above proves it.

However, progressives shouldn't casually dismiss Palin---or her prospects to be elected president in 2012.

Personally, I believe Palin will indeed run in 2012. And if we Democrats don't take Palin seriously as a candidate, we deserve to lose the election.

After all, Palin has a rabidly loyal following that is enjoying growing momentum. She is a genuine political phenomenon. And most importantly, she has a formidable fund-raising machine in place.

If you doubt the loyalty of Palin's base, consider this: Palin's 2009 book, Going Rogue: An American Life sold nearly 3 million copies. It is one of the best-selling political memoirs in U.S. history.

It's clear that Palin is a political and intellectual mediocrity. However, it doesn't necessarily follow that Palin has no chance at winning the presidency.

After all, the American people elected Bush/Cheney twice. (Well, not really, but enough people voted for Bush/Cheney to where the GOP could steal the vote).

If you doubt Palin could win in 2012, consider this: in 2008, nearly 60 million Americans cast their vote for Palin to be a heartbeat away from the White House.

If the U.S. economy is still in the toilet in 2012 (and I believe it likely will be), then the nation will be in an angry mood, come election time. The horrendous poison-pill economy that Obama inherited from Bush could well simply be unfixable, no matter what action Obama takes between now and then.

If 2012 still sees America mired in an economic rut, then the Tea Party and Palin will be well-positioned to take advantage of the crisis.

Anyone who doubts Palin's prospects for success in 2012 is simply blind to the reality of American political history (and the dumbing-down of U.S. culture) since 1980.

5 comments:

Sarah Palin isn't qualified to be county dogcatcher. She is an immature, ignorant, poorly educated (DESPITE her worthless degree) self-centered and short-sighted little boob with very limited and fragmented reasoning ability and an excruciatingly shrill and irritating manner of speaking. She is the extremely bratty little sister who loves to make a spectacle and get everybody's attention. Those who avidly follow her and admire her for all the things she supposedly is (but really isn't) are dangerously deluded, but they number in the millions. This irresponsible and naive little girl must be held accountable and made to answer for every single one of her outlandish claims and hollow generalities. She must be constantly exposed for the fraud she is. Eventually, her shallowness and false veneer will become so obvious there will be no way she could mount a successful campaign for national office. A Palin White House would mean the end of this country.

Hi Jack, thanks for your comment. I agree with the points you make, re: Palin.Back in the 1970s, I would have agreed that a mediocrity like Palin could never be elected.However, with the dumbing-down of culture that has taken place over the past three decades, I think it's entirely possible she could win the White House.

What is sad about the state of politics in the US is that people like Palin are considered to be presidential material at all instead of being dismissed upon her first appearance.

As a Canadian, I've talked to many other people from many other nationalities who for the most part, collectively agree that a leader like Palin is not leadership material. It seems that increasingly in the US, being more right wing, being more willing to deny reality, and being less intelligent is more likely to get a candidate into the limelight. The Republicans know this and are exploiting it ruthlessly. They know that a significant portion of the American public has a decidedly anti-intellectual streak, and that appeals to populism are an effective means of gaining popular support.

If she does get into power ... well, it does not take a genius to realize that this is a huge problem. We have the following in place:

1. A political party, the Republicans that is determined to hold power at all costs and an amoral willingness to do more or less anything that they can get away with to accomplish that.

2. Said political party has no real solutions towards the many problems that the US is facing. Instead, they advocate for the same disastrous policies that created many of the problems.

3. A less than intelligent candidate who is likely to prove both incompetent, but more dangerously, easy to exploit for special interests. The candidate's foreign policy is likely to be as disastrous as their domestic policies.

4. An economy in general decline and globally, a superpower whose power is quickly diminishing thanks to the mismanagement of previous generations. As mentioned earlier, there are no real solutions being proposed by the Republicans.

5. Despite the decline, the US remains a potent military power and could lash out at the rest of the world. Combine this with a public which is understandably angry, but is blaming the wrong people for their problems.

6. No accountability whatsoever for any disasters resulting form these policies.

When one sees the magnitude of the problems, one is forced ponder at the severity of the implications, not just for the US, but for the world. Perhaps the most sad part of all of this is the self-inflicted nature so many of these problems.

.

About This Blog

Welcome to BeggarsCanBeChoosers.com, the progressive political blog of Marc McDonald. A Texas journalist, McDonald worked for 15 years for several newspapers, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, before he quit his day job and set up shop in cyberspace in 1995. McDonald's articles have appeared in a number of popular progressive Web sites, including Crooks and Liars, The Reaction, Buzzflash.com, Salon.com, OpEdNews.com, The Neil Rogers Show and The Raw Story. McDonald's Web articles have also been featured and reviewed by various national and international media, including CNN Headline News, the BBC, CBS, the Washington Post, USA Today and many more. On June 3, 2011, I was interviewed on the progressive radio program, "Voices at Work." Go here to hear my interview with host Ron Gonyea. I am always available for media interviews on progressive issues. Contact me here.